Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Living Stones, Living Church

















1 Peter 2:4-6
4As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him—
5you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
6For in Scripture it says: "See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame."


The first truth that Peter tells us is that we are LIVING STONES.
Before we became followers of Jesus, we were like... rocks.
A rock, by itself, can't do anything. It is a non-living thing.
But, when we became followers of Jesus we became LIVING STONES instead of a useless rock.

In other words before we became followers of Jesus, we were dead in our selfishness and sin. And, if we had stayed dead... we would never be able to be with and live with Jesus, someday, as His forever friend.
Instead, we would have been separated from Him forever and after we leave this Earth, we would exist in complete loneliness.

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So... What do we get to do as LIVING STONES?
Well, Peter tells us a second truth.
He says that like LIVING STONES we are being used to be built into a SPIRITUAL HOUSE. Hmm! What is a SPIRITUAL HOUSE?

This SPIRITUAL HOUSE is The Church.

The Church is not actually a building.
The Church is actually the followers of Jesus.

This building we come to is only a PHYSICAL or EARTHLY HOUSE where followers of Jesus meet together to worship God. So... this building is the house where our Church meets. This building is not the Church itself. It is a tool. It can be an important tool but WE are The Church! You and me, together.

When we become followers of Jesus, Peter says that, like a LIVING STONE, God is building us into a SPIRITUAL or HEAVENLY HOUSE.

So when you become a follower of Jesus you are actually apart of two worlds, our PHYSICAL or EARTHLY WORLD and our SPIRITUAL or HEAVENLY WORLD.

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As the song reads...
God is making us into a living church. He's making it of living stones.
Each of us is connected and has special worth. Heaven's gonna be our Home.
We're Living Stones. And, we're not alone!
-Living Stones by God Rocks

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